Blogging about the books in my life and my life in books

Ginseng and other problems

In the quiet of my flat, the tiny sound of rustling foliage. Another leaf has fallen from my recently acquired ginseng tree. Why are they dropping with such alarming frequency? Google has provided spectacularly little help, with a late night trawl informing me only that ginsengs shed their leaves either when too wet or too dry, too hot or too cold. Well, thanks for that. Being a book nerd my first port of call was naturally my horticultural bible, “The Houseplant Expert” – except my well-thumbed edition was written in the days before anyone dreamt of bringing anything as exotic and alien as a ginseng tree into their home. I’ve probably got what I deserve for buying a plant from a supermarket whose care instruction labels were exactly the same for every single species they sold; but still, it niggles me that yet another beloved houseplant will take its last gasp and expire sometime very soon.

The imminent fate of my little ginseng is the smallest of a whole host of mental distractions that have kept me away from blogging of late. Writing is something I love, and as such would probably have been the perfect antidote to the intrusive negative thoughts that have been stubbornly hanging around me recently, but my brain has been too saturated to leave even the tiniest bit of room for a pleasurable escape route. A couple of days ago though, the door opened just a crack and a sliver of light peeked through; after a few weeks of stupor and barely caring if no-one ever read my blog again, I suddenly wanted to write again more than anything.

So here I am. And next time I’ll be back talking about books as per usual. Unless anyone out there can shed any light on exactly why my ginseng tree might be losing its leaves, in which case I’ll feel compelled to pass it on…